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5.1.4 Remarriage
5.1.4.1 Absence of the husband on business for more than five years
could dissolve the marriage if the wife had no means of subsistence
(MAL A 36). If, however, he was detained involuntarily, due to a
judicial error or a royal order, the marriage continued no matter
how long his absence. Middle Assyrian law recognized a case of con-
ditional marriage: the wife of a prisoner of war could validly remarry
after two years, but on the first husband’s return he could take her
back. The children of the second union followed their father (MAL
A 45).5.1.4.2 The widow is declared legally independent (status of almattu)
when she has neither sons nor sons-in-law to maintain her (MAL A
33:57–59,^72 and A 46), nor relatives who could marry her (MAL A
33:65–66).^73 She may then leave the marital or paternal home and
enter freely into a new marriage (MAL A 28). The almattu widow
who remarries without a contract acquires the status of wife after
two years’ cohabitation (MAL A 34).5.1.5 Desertion of the Marital Home
Two laws discuss this situation. In MAL A 22 a man improperly
takes a married woman with him on a journey, presumably as a
“traveling companion” (“e"ìtu). Whether he knows of the woman’s
married status or not, he has to pay her husband two talents of lead
in compensation and swear that he has not committed adultery. The
culprit is above all blamed for not having demanded the husband’s
permission to “recruit” his spouse for the journey.^74 In MAL A 24,KAJ 7, the wife is a debtor of her husband and is socially superior to him; in TIM
4 45, the woman could be a widow without sons or father-in-law, free to nego-
tiate and to contract her marriage.(^72) Contra Borger, “Gesetze.. .,” followed by Otto, “Altersversorgung.. .,” 104,
for whom the law concerns the levirate for an inchoate spouse (ll. 57–58: dumu
iba““i, “there is a son (of the father-in-law),” rather than dumu.me“iba““i“there are
sons (to maintain the widow)”). But a wife could be fully married even if living
with her father (l. 56).
(^73) Following the interpretation of Wilcke, “Familiengründung.. .,” 249, n. 51,
for whom the phrase emi“a ana a¢uzzete iddan“imeans “he (the wife’s father) will give
her in marriage to her brother-in-law”; in relation to the wife, the term emudes-
ignates all her male in-laws and not only the father-in-law.
(^74) For comparison of MAL A 22 with an incident at Mari, see Durand, ARM
26/1 513.
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